Motivation or Discipline?
I see a lot of posts about ways to find motivation. I've said many times that I am looking for my motivation or trying to get some motivation. People will say to find a strong goal that makes you want to get out of bed. In fact, we did a podcast recently about finding your "WHY".
But, are we putting to much work into finding or maintaining our motivation? I firmly believe you have to know your "WHY" but if you keep having to find your motivation maybe your "WHY" isn't the only thing you need.
My 616 Fit Coach dropped some amazing wisdom last week. I don't have the exact quote. But, the overall thought is that motivation comes and goes, it is discipline that you need to keep showing up. So, is discipline more important than your motivation? And why don't more people focus on having discipline? Is it because discipline is harder to obtain? Is it easier to be motivated that it is to be disciplined? I feel like motivation is more about how you feel in the moment and discipline is about the long term. To put it another way, when I don't want to workout in the morning, motivation can get to me to workout that day. But, it might not work tomorrow. Whereas, if I don't want to workout today or tomorrow, or next week, discipline will make me do it.
The definition of discipline for our use is "train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way." Whereas the definition of motivation is "the general desire or willingness of someone to do something."
I think the difference between these two definitions is that discipline is a habit and motivation is feeling. So maybe you still need a strong "WHY" to influence either discipline or motivation. And, then you get to choose whether you rely on one or the other. You can make whatever it is that you are trying to do a habit because you are disciplined or you can rely on motivation to make you want to do something.
But, let's take it a step further. Can you have one without the other? Yes. But, will they lead you to the same results. Probably not, but I'm just guessing.
I still feel that I haven't fully figured out why we strive for motivation over discipline. At least I understand the difference now. Let me know in the comments what you think.